From the event website: Life Sciences is a rapidly expanding field in the use of neutrons. The number of users at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Zentrum (MLZ) performing experiments related to life sciences is constantly growing. Be it contrast variation for matching out protein, DNA or lipids or the hunt for catalytical important hydrogen atoms, neutrons play an important role in determining structures of biologically relevant molecules or membranes. Neutron tomography on living plants or tissue uses the huge difference in incoherent scattering of hydrogen as compared to deuterium. Using incoherent and coherent inelastic neutron scattering, investigation of equilibrium dynamics of biological systems is possible on the picosecond and nanosecond time scale. With future neutron sources, time resolved investigations will become more and more important. Dedicated sample environment and additional in situ measurement techniques all optimized for small sample volumes will be needed in the future.
This is why the MLZ Conference 2021 intends to bring together experts in the field of Life Sciences regardless whether they have used neutron scattering techniques or not. The conference will try to cover all relevant fields of life sciences and will discuss on how to improve neutron instrumentation, access to neutron beam time, sample environments and support labs for future life sciences users.
From the event website: The Northern Lights on Food network provides researchers in the food field with the opportunity to build unique excellence to take full advantage of the new research tools available at the European Spallation Source, ESS and MAX IV Laboratory in Lund. These tools are anticipated to lead to new knowledge and cutting-edge technology and innovation for the food industry, which can in turn strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the Swedish food sector to meet the objectives related to sustainable development.
The aim of Northern Lights on Food is to:
Increase the awareness and competence of using X-ray and neutron-based techniques in food research and development in both academia and industry.
Engage the food sector in the design of ESS and MAX IV and create financing paths to actively participate in the development, which includes adapting the existing and planned instruments, designing sample environments and developing data analysis programs for food-related issues.
Establish a long-term strategy for collaborative interdisciplinary research within food areas utilizing advanced characterization methods from ESS and MAX IV.
Promote the establishment of a long-term financing system for the use of advanced technologies specifically designed to answer food science issues, both on Nordic and European scale.
From the event website: The aim of the course is to expose SwedNESS students to state-of-the-art neutron methodology in Life Science, and to provide a widened knowledge and experience basis for using biomaterials in their own research as a basis for building functional hypotheses. Examples of how neutron methods in Life Science can be used to increased functional understanding and develop novel concepts will be given by internationally recognised expertise. Theory and examples of best-practice will be presented within the following areas: Proteins, Lipids, Carbohydrates, Structure and dynamics, Cells and surfaces, and Industrial applications. Exercises will include both hands-on evaluation of real neutron data in-silico as well as literature studies and beam time proposal writing. The aim of the course is to prepare for active use of neutrons in own research projects as well as to develop neutron experiments and methodology for other life science application in general, including biomaterials and biomedical applications like drug delivery.
From the event website: This course is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty with knowledge of structure and function of biological macromolecules but with limited to no experience of neutron scattering. The course will take place over two weeks and is entirely virtual:
Week 1 – June 21-25: Live lectures. Number of participants is unlimited.
Week 2 – June 28-30: Live tutorials. Attendance to week 1 lectures is required for participation in the tutorial sessions. (Number of participants is limited to 15. Registration is on a first-come first-served basis and requires submission of questions/problems.)
From the event website: In addition to showcasing the benefits of SAXS at various stages of the drug development & production processes, we will cover practical workflows and how you can characterize and analyse (bio-)therapeutic systems – such as fusion proteins, monoclonal antibodies, nucleic acids, drug delivery systems and, of course, emerging vaccines – with SAXS in the lab and at synchrotron.
